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Autism Parents
"Autism Parents" or more commonly "Autism Moms" is an identifier used by some parents of autistic children. The identity is often associated with bravery, courage and strength, due to the challenges these mothers face throughout their child's lives. Unfortunately, many of these self-proclaimed "Autism warriors" have been heavily influenced by extremely toxic societal views of autism and autistic people. Most prominently have been the messages from groups like Autism Speaks, who focus on the challenges of raising autistic children and fundraise towards finding a cure. Please. Stop. If you are a parent of an autistic child. Please take the time to completely re-evaluate your thinking on autism. I do not blame you for believing the things you have been told about autism, and the things you have directly experienced. However, if you aren't willing to listen to actual autistic adults about what people like us really need, and choose to elevate your voices over us, then you are also elevating your voice over your own child. Because we were once autistic children. No matter how capable we might seem today, we have been through varying stages of growth and the best chance your child has for growing to not just capability but also to self-esteem, is to centre the lessons of those who have been through that journey. Not the lessons of scumbags like Autism Speaks, who pocket the money of concerned people so that they can spread toxic messages about trying to eliminate autistic people from the planet. Bad Examples The Decline and Fall of “Autism” - Cortical Chauvinism By Jill Escher, October 19, 2017 (TW: extremely ableist views, invalidating Autistic people, stigmatizing mental disabilities, trivialising the Neurodiversity movement, Auti$m Speaks advocate, discussion of Autistic children as a burden on parents and society, trivializing the challenges of Autistic people with low support needs as 'social quirkiness', author using her autistic kids as props and divulging private and intimate details of their lives for the sake of proving her points) "I’m the mom of two kids with profound neurodevelopmental impairments, labeled by multiple esteemed practitioners as “autism.” At ages 18 and 11, they can’t read, write, or talk. They have never played with a toy or dressed themselves. They don’t know their birthdays, much less what “birthday” might mean. They are both gorgeous, healthy and utterly delightful, with smiles and personalities that light up the room, but because of their profound mental dysfunctions they will require one-to-one 24/7 assistance for the entirety of their lives, all at astronomical expense to us and society. In short, no reasonable person denies that they suffer walloping mental disorders of the most alarming magnitude. So imagine my shock reading “Neurodiversity – a revolutionary concept for autism and psychiatry,” by Simon Baron-Cohen, professor of developmental psychopathology at University of Cambridge and the current president of the International Society for Autism Research. In it, he suggests that the field of psychiatry should perhaps view autism as a variant of normal along the lines of homosexuality or left-handedness, rather than as a mental disorder where brain and behavior involve some sort of impairment." "After some fuming, I went back and parsed the editorial to try to understand how Baron-Cohen, a researcher I quite like, could pen something so bizarre. And it hit me. Of course, his autism is not my autism. His version is customized and narrowly drawn, a trait involving quirky social shortcoming, and not a pervasive disruption of development as described by Kanner, as understood through the decades of the DSM, and as understood by me. Though somewhat buried in his argument, it seems he would not deny that people like my kids have disorders, but that he would shoo them away from his conception of autism." "This is a rather different spin on autism, but okay, why be surprised? Today, semantic anarchy reigns in AutismLand. Your version of “autism” is probably different from the next guy’s. On the TV show The Good Doctor, autism is a genius surgeon, but in my friend Anna’s house, it’s a nonverbal young man who bashes his head 200 times a day. It has come to mean articulate and capable self-advocates, as well as Sonja who at 18 regularly poops on the floor and smears it. It means a focused young woman writing complicated software for a tech company, as well as Marco who can only use a computer to press “want to eat.” Some write of autism as a trait that’s a “gift,” while to my friend Alex it’s a brutal disorder involving shrieking and ripping the skin off his face. Stephen Shore, a great guy who serves on the board of Autism Speaks, calls his autism a “super power,” while ace diagnosticians such as Cathy Lord, PhD, insist “autism is defined by having a significant impairment.” When one realizes that autism is a purely behaviorally defined disorder, one must marvel that so many contradictory and divergent behavioral realities could be lumped under one term. It’s arbitrary, self-imposed semantic lunacy, as absurd as if we called both the common cold and acute pneumonia “the sniffles.”*" Review of "To Siri With Love" by Twitter user @KaelanRhy http://www.thinkingautismguide.com/2018/06/against-autism-parent-feedback-loop-of.html bridging the gap? Great Examples Lorna Wing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Wing "Lorna Wing, OBE, FRCPsych (7 October 1928 – 6 June 2014) was an English psychiatrist. She was a pioneer in the field of childhood developmental disorders who advanced understanding of autism worldwide, introduced the term Asperger syndrome and was involved in founding the National Autistic Society (NAS) in the UK." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Wing#Personal_life "Wing met her future husband (John Wing, 22 October 1923 – 18 April 2010) while they were dissecting the same body as medical students. They married in 1951.6 She became involved in researching developmental {divergences}, particularly autism spectrum {divergences} following their realisation that their daughter Susie (1956–2005) was autistic.2" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Wing#Academic_career "Wing trained as a medical doctor, specialising in psychiatry. Her focus changed to childhood developmental disorders in 1959. At that time autism was thought to affect around 5 in 10,000 children, but its prevalence in the 2010s is considered to be around 1 in 100 following the awareness raised by Wing and her followers.2 Her research, particularly with her collaborator Judith Gould, now underpins thinking in the field of autism. They initiated the Camberwell Case Register to record all patients using psychiatric services in this region of London. The data accumulated by this innovative approach gave Wing the basis for her influential insight that autism formed a spectrum, rather than clearly differentiated disorders. They also set up the Centre for Social and Communication Disorders, the first integrated diagnostic and advice service for these conditions in the UK.3 Wing was the author of many books and academic papers, including Asperger Syndrome: a Clinical Account, a 1981 academic paper that popularised the research of Hans Asperger and introduced the term "Asperger syndrome". Although groundbreaking and influential, Wing herself cautioned in her 1981 paper that "It must be pointed out that the people described by the present author all had problems of adjustment or superimposed psychiatric illnesses severe enough to necessitate referral to a psychiatric clinic ... (and) the series described here is probably biased towards those with more severe handicaps." She joined with other parents of autistic children to found the organisation now known as the National Autistic Society in the United Kingdom in 1962.2 She was a consultant to NAS Lorna Wing Centre for Autism until she died.4 She was also President of Autism Sussex.5" Links: http:///timetolisten.blogspot.com/2017/02/i-hope-youre-proud-of-yourselves.html (Neurodivergent K, in fine form, dismantling the "progress" made by Autism Speaks style "Autism Parents") https://theestablishment.co/how-william-shatner-betrayed-autistic-peoples-trust-8f0470019697 (2017 overview of the debate, catalysed by William Shatner's support for Autism Speaks) https://youtu.be/C7NTfZzS9b8 (TW : video of Autism parent indicating times of homocidal urges towards their autistic child) Category:Autism Spectrum Category:Neurodiversity